What I Learned about Advocacy, and the Toolkit I Built for Therapists

by Falisha Oser, LMHC-D

The mental health workforce shortage in the United States is a symptom of a much bigger problem: retaining therapists to stay in the field. According to a 2025 Motivo whitepaper, 54% of masters-level therapists and social workers never made it to licensure. State regulations further contribute to the mental health workforce shortage by limiting the availability of qualified supervisors for the next generation of pre-licensed clinicians.

I am a licensed mental health counselor with diagnostic privilege (LMHC-D) in New York. I am also a clinical supervisor. Under current New York State law, I am only allowed to supervise pre-licensed mental health counselors. A licensed clinical social worker, by contrast, is considered qualified to supervise five different types of mental health professionals (LMSWs, MFTs, CATs, counselors, and psychoanalysts). Even in the same group practice working for the same employer, my LCSW colleague can hire from a much larger applicant pool. This disparity is not a reflection of training or clinical competence. It is a regulatory bottleneck, and it is one of many similar restrictions across states that contribute to the workforce shortage of mental health professionals. 

This is why I have been advocating for New York Senate Bill S6999 and its companion Assembly Bill A00780, known as the SUPPORT Act (Supervising Upcoming Professionals for Practice in Official Roles in Therapy). The bill would allow pre-licensed clinical social workers to satisfy their supervised experience requirements under an LMHC-D.

On March 11, I went to the State Capitol in Albany for an advocacy day organized by the Mental Health Association in New York State (MHANYS), where I met with my state representatives to advocate for the SUPPORT Act. Prior to the advocacy day, I preliminarily introduced myself and provided a brief overview of the SUPPORT Act in an email to my assembly member, who sits on the Committee of Higher Education where the bill was sent for review in January and where it continues to sit. I asked her to bring this bill to the assembly's next Higher Education Committee meeting in support of a vote to move it through to the legislative process of becoming law. During the meeting, I explained how passing the SUPPORT Act could improve the shortage of mental health professionals and I provided a one-page handout summarizing the bill's key tenets and workforce data related to the need for more qualified supervisors along with my contact information. The next day, I emailed every legislative member I met with to thank them and reiterate my request for their support of the SUPPORT Act.

Advocacy takes time, repetition, and strategy. When I visited Albany, one legislator told me that the New York State Capitol receives around 11,000 bills each year, and lawmakers are only in session from January to June. Bills are triaged by importance based on level of support. 

I have not heard back from any of the legislators I met with in Albany. I have not received a response to the many outreach attempts I have made since then. The bill may never become law. 

But the work was not pointless. I learned a lot, and instead of keeping that knowledge to myself, I created an open-source advocacy toolkit for mental health professionals. It includes letter templates and phone scripts for communicating with legislators; a how-to guide for finding state-based legislation; resources for federal advocacy; and curated guidance from experts in social policy, healthcare reform, and mental health workforce advocacy.

If there is a state-level or national-level issue you are passionate about, you can find your local, state, and federal representatives through Cicero, and the toolkit offers templates and resources to take it from there.

The mental health workforce shortage is real; removing unnecessary barriers for the clinicians who are already trained, tested, and ready to help is worth advocating for. 

Falisha Oser, LMHC-D is a licensed mental health counselor, clinical supervisor, and policy advocate specializing in mental health systems reform in New York. After scaling clinical operations across a multi-state group practice, she now focuses on legislative advocacy and operational innovation at the intersection of clinical practice and health policy. As a Member of the Policy Committee with the Psychotherapy Action Network (PsiAN), Falisha works to remove regulatory barriers, improve equitable access to care, and advocate for workforce sustainability. Her priorities include removing insurance company control over treatment decisions and improving workforce sustainability through fair compensation. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.